All You Can Eat

    I am a frequenter of the Chinese buffets in town. I love these Chinese buffets. They don't just have Chinese food. I can mix mac and cheese with orange chicken and some pudding and piece of pizza. But I realized the other day when I joined my Grandpa for lunch at the Chinese buffet that I had been doing the buffet thing all wrong.
      Usually when I go to the buffet, I stuff everything I possibly can on one plate and then sit down and eat it. My french fries are covered in soy sauce. The sweet and sour sauce for the sweet and sour chicken is every where but on the chicken. Where is the sense in this? I am at a buffet. I can go back for as many plates as I want. Why should mix it all together, pile everything on top of each other?
      My Grandpa is what I refer to as a "Professional Buffet Eater." A term I didn't know should have existed until I joined him at the buffet. He begins with his fish plate. Mainly shrimp. Then he moves to fruit. Then his main course, which consisted of stuffed clams and mushrooms among other things. He had never known about the Hibachi part, so my cousin introduced him to that and he added spicy chicken, shrimp, steak, and noodles to his entree. Then he moved on to his usual dessert of pudding and jello squares. What a genius. Why have I never thought to do that? THAT is how you work the buffet. You would think that through all my buffet experience, I would have picked this up by now. It seems like common sense.
      A buffet is a place to sample things. It's all you can eat. And you can have an unlimited amount of plates. So try every ice cream flavor without mixing them all together. And eat non-soy-sauce soaked fried zucchini. Try your Chinese donut without sweet and sour sauce and cheese and rice all over it. Transform yourself from an amateur buffet go-er to a professional, like my grandfather. The ultimate buffet pro.